Police condemned for violent arrest of legless man

VIDEO footage of Queensland Police pinning and punching a disabled man with half of his legs missing has gone viral, sparking outrage and allegations of unreasonable force.

In the five-minute video, three officers are seen arresting the 20-year-old man and a woman, 18, who were suspected of attempting to steal wine at the Sunnybank shopping centre, in Brisbane's south, on Saturday.

The footage was uploaded to Facebook by Declan Liu and has had at least half a million views, with hundreds condemning the officers for using too much force, the ABC reported.

In the video, two officers are seen pinning down the man, whose prosthetics legs have come off.

The man is put in a head lock, and two officers wrestle to handcuff him, at which point one is seen punching the alleged offender four times.

The Queensland Police Union president Ian Leavers supported the actions of the officers.

Mr Leavers said when the camera was not rolling, the officers initially handcuffed the man and then released him to allow to reattach his prosthetics legs, which had fallen off.

It was at this point the man allegedly became violent, which was captured on camera.